Cyberattack changed audit procedure at Bluewater Health

Disrupted by last October’s cyberattack, Bluewater Health’s most recent financial audit was anything but typical.

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Silvana Slavik, auditor with BDO Canada LLP, said she’s never had to change procedure as much for an audit before, after Bluewater Health was reduced to relying on paper to track information.

“That was a very daunting and extensive task,” she said about putting the audit together.

“Not only for the finance team to compile all the data, but for us as auditors to come in and change our procedures.”

Communication between Bluewater Health and BDO happened early and often, she said, to make sure everything needed was in place.

“That conversation never stopped,” she said.

Ultimately the result, a clean audit, was presented at the hospital corporation’s annual general meeting this week, where the board accepted the results, new board members were appointed and the fiscal year that ended March 31 — a $6.7-million deficit — was reviewed.

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The meeting itself was pushed back from its typical timing in June because the financials took longer to compile, amid disruption from the cyberattack.

“Although we’re late this year, the AGM is a nice kind of confirmation of the integrity of our finance team, the work that we do hand-in-hand with our auditors, and the final outcome, that we’re here with a clean audit,” said Paula Reaume-Zimmer, Bluewater Health president and CEO.

“It’s all based on relationships,” she said about how the unorthodox audit process unfolded.

“Earning trust over the years that (the auditor) can have confidence in the finance team and the work and the preparation that they’re doing,” she said.

Everything about this year’s audit holds up, Slavik said.

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“The standards are the standards and we audit to that,” she said. “And, at the end of the day, Bluewater Health was able to meet those standards.”

Reaume-Zimmer, who’d been Bluewater Health’s CEO less than a year when the cyberattack hit, said the trial has made Bluewater Health stronger.

“There’s been a lot of emotion, a lot of hard work.” she said.

“We know that this is acute care and it’s not going to end necessarily this year, but we really have proven our ability to constantly step up to the challenge.

“And I think this AGM is a testament to that.”

Bluewater Health is still on track to upgrade to a new, more secure, $40-million hospital information system in November, she said.

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